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Do Subjects Have a Place in Spanish?

  • José Camacho
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New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics
This chapter is in the book New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics

Abstract

Overt preverbal subjects in Spanish have been claimed to be in an adjoined, peripheral layer of the clause and in IP-layer. Part of the motivation for the different analyses stems from mixed A and A-bar properties they display. I argue that subjects do not appear in a single, unique position, but rather in several functional projections along the extended verbal projection. Consequently, different A and A-bar properties are expected. In some cases, the properties of those projections will be determined in the course of the derivation: if a verb raises to a certain projection, it will render this projection active for agreement purposes and trigger movement of the subject to its specifier.

Abstract

Overt preverbal subjects in Spanish have been claimed to be in an adjoined, peripheral layer of the clause and in IP-layer. Part of the motivation for the different analyses stems from mixed A and A-bar properties they display. I argue that subjects do not appear in a single, unique position, but rather in several functional projections along the extended verbal projection. Consequently, different A and A-bar properties are expected. In some cases, the properties of those projections will be determined in the course of the derivation: if a verb raises to a certain projection, it will render this projection active for agreement purposes and trigger movement of the subject to its specifier.

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